Safranito

Safranito – there’s also a version called Hibachi – is a spicy dexterity game where players are racing to be the first to complete three recipes. How they do it flies in the face of kitchen etiquette, but it’s a whole lot of fun.

The board is a large picture of six bowls containing different kinds of spices, plus four smaller circles that represent actions. Each player is given some money and a set of six coins (with a small hole in their centre), and on a given round, your job is to toss your coin onto the board and try and land it so the central hole is above either the spices, or the action circles. If you do so successfully, you’ll be able to buy and sell that spice.

Beside the board will be three recipes that require three different spices each – as soon as you’ve collected the right spices you can trade them in to the bank to complete a recipe.

At the start of each round six new cards are laid out around the board showing which spices are available (landing your coin in an ’empty’ spice bowl means you can’t buy it, but you can sell any in your hand if you choose) so some spices will be more available than others. Additionally, your coins have a value of between 10 to 60, and which one you choose to throw (all players throw their coins face-down) has an effect on the price of the space: all the coins in the bowl dictate the selling price, whilst your own coin dictates the buying price. If there is only one card available, the player with the highest total coin value gets first refusal on buying it, with the starting player marker as the tie-breaker.

Finally the smaller bowls, should you land on them, give you the following one-off actions: grab the starting player (to break ties), throw an extra coin, get a secret recipe (-you keep it to yourself and don’t have to show the other players what spices it requires), and take a spice from the deck. This last option in particular can be a game-winner.

Once you’re up to speed the game plays quickly and there are multiple opportunities to sabotage your opponents by knocking their coins out the way – and equally, if inadvertently, sabotage yourself!